The Asbury Park Chamber of Commerce by all accounts is handled well. It was once as out of sorts as the City itself, run by the gas company with mostly out of City gatherings.

Lifetime resident Don Stine gave it a boost in 2002. He formed the competing “Asbury Park Merchants Guild,” which gobbled up all the new businesses that were opening at the time as members. It was vibrant, fresh and gave Asbury Park some great events. Little did anyone know Stine purposely designed it not to last. He wanted to jump start the Chamber through competition, then eventually merge with it. That happened. The Merchants Guild became a special events committee of the Chamber, which has been running well ever since.

Yet there is something ominous coming this May 13, when the Chamber honors the Stone Pony with a Carousel Award, despite it being revealed that the parent company who owns the Pony is rooted in the Middle East and has a brutal Sharia Law advisor named Sheikh Muhammad Taqi Usmani.